The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said today that the country's gross domestic product jumped by 0.5 percent in the first three months of 2010 and further grew by 2.7 percent in the year leading to March, thanks to sustained government spending that has substantially propped up the local economy.

After seeing some sluggish activities for the past three months, ABS said that the Australian economy got some boost from public expenditures on infrastructures and buildings which pushed its GDP growth up to 0.7 percentage points higher, while household consumption increased too and contributed 0.3 percentage points to economic growth.

The bureau revealed, however, that up to 0.6 percentage points have been deducted from GDP as business investment in equipment and building declined and considerably dragged down the nation's economic gains.

According to a Bloomberg survey, 24 financial institutions have forecasted quarterly economic improvements of up to 1 percent while the government's own projections were growths of 0.5 percent in the first quarter and 2.4 percent in the year leading to March.

It was indeed good news that the quarterly predictions reached market expectations and did not bother the local currency though the year-on-year result was a bit higher owing to an upward revision in the December quarter's growth numbers.

Last year's December growth figures of up to 1.1 percent obviously dwarfed this year's March quarter's pace of growth.